Recently a general counsel told me that as a young associate at a law firm he was very excited to be asked to attend his first meeting with a client. He said after the meeting the partner who was with him called him aside and said, "You need to shut up."

He was quite offended at the time, but in hindsight he believes it was some of the best advice he ever received.

Listening is a skill that is necessary to find out what is really going on with your clients or prospects. Unless you really listen to what they are saying you will never be able to help them.

To know how to listen to someone else, keep in mind how you would like someone to listen to you. How would you like them to help solve your problem?

Review the list below and evaluate your listening skills.

Maintain eye contact and show that you are totally focused on what they are telling you.

There is no template or boiler plate answer for what a firm should do to improve their marketing and business development. It takes time to determine what is working and what is not. The process is much like the one an attorney uses to uncover or solve a legal problem. Having the patience to go through the process to discover why you aren't getting the work you think you want or why key clients have left to go elsewhere will lead to a much better plan and strategy for your firm. There unfortunately is no McLaw solution.

Developing a focused competitive strategy among a loose coalition of entrepreneurs is a herculean task. But it can be made easier when every partner has a shared understanding of the dynamics of the industry and the right tools to guide the analysis. Eric Dewey of Group Dewey Consulting has some ideas. Here are several models that can be useful in developing consensus and executing competitive law firm strategies. These uncommonly simple techniques will enable you to align individual and practice group initiatives in a way that supports the overall strategic direction of the firm.

A recent study by FindLaw determined that the Internet was used 38% of the time by both companies and individuals as the first source to find an attorney. Also consider that 57% of all corporate buying decisions are now made online before the decision-maker contacts the provider. "People" make buying decisions whether they work for a corporation or are an individual purchaser. And if these people are using websites, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or other online resources, not being there may mean that you might be missing 38% of the business you could be getting.